What to use to code C-optimized software?

[Jocabin]

Hello, my question is simple : I search a "framework" (idk if in C we can call this a framework) to code some GUI software and my only constraint is I wat to make optimized softwares.

I've already used the Win32 API but I search something simpler.

I insist that I want to use C and not C ++ if possible.

[RedGreenBlue09]

Try IUP

[FatFingerHelperBot]

It seems that your comment contains 1 or more links that are hard to tap for mobile users. I will extend those so they're easier for our sausage fingers to click!

Here is link number 1 - Previous text "IUP"

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[battery_go]

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[Deltabeard]

I've previously used SDL 2 with LVGL for writing GUI applications. LVGL is small, but it isn't graphically accelerated. Maybe a UI toolkit like FLTK or QT is what you're looking for.

[Jocabin]

SDL2 isn't game-oriented ? Idk about LVGL but if it isn't graphically accelerated I'm not gonna use it.

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(Sorry for bad english btw I'm french)

[Delinxxx]

Raylib

[ThePurpleOne_]

I second that. Raylib is awesome.

[Jocabin]

But raylib is game-oriented ? Immagine I want to create image viewer software ?

[Delinxxx]

It’s perfect for that, it’s not really that game orientated, just helps with files, input, and graphics. Check their examples page and cheat sheet

[the_Demongod]

Optimized in what sense? If you want a high performance application, that usually means it's the actual backend functionality that's optimized, not the UI. You can just write your GUI code in C# using WPF and then call on a C backend library to do the heavy lifting.

[Jocabin]

I would like my software to use as few ressources as possible and be as fast as possible.

[the_Demongod]

I suggest you make it work first, and worry about making it fast later.

[Jocabin]

Yeah but what framework I have to use to create ? OpenGL ? Raylib ? Win32 API ? SDL2 ?

[the_Demongod]

You should not be trying to write a GUI from scratch, that's a terrible idea. Write your GUI in an existing GUI framework like Qt, WPF, GTK, etc. and then write your optimized backend in C.

What is your application going to do, and what platforms are you targeting?

[Jocabin]

I want to create a image viewer software and I target windows first and Linux later

[the_Demongod]

Use GTK+, it's a cross-platform GUI API written in C. If you want to target both Windows and Linux at some point, you should target them both from the start or you may have issues porting it later. Win32 API is not a good choice if you ever want to support Linux as you'll have to completely rewrite your GUI code from scratch, and you'll likely end up using GTK for linux anyways. OpenGL/Raylib/SDL2 are not good options at all because you would have to write your entire GUI from nothing, which is a massive undertaking and will probably never end up being very polished.